Correctional Officers and Jailers in Alaska

A protective helmet, radio and safety vest at an emergency response station.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$59,032

after federal, FICA and Alaska tax

Tax takes

$12,328

17.3% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$58,036

Alaska costs more than average

One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.

Median here

$71,360

Kept after tax

$59,032

Worth in national money

$58,036

State rank

10

of 49 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • Pay for this job is strong here. Alaska's middle earner gets $71,360, putting the state 10 of 49 — about 21.07% ahead of the national figure.
  • Ordinary, locally speaking. This job ranks 204 among 430 occupations Alaska publishes pay for.
  • Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $71,360 the take-home is $59,032, which is worth about $58,036 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $74,430, because the best-paid pull it up.
  • For correctional officers and jailers, Alaska sits in the upper band nationally: a median of $71,360, ranking 10 of 49 and running about 21.07% above the national midpoint. Nominal advantage of this size is usually, though not always, large enough to survive the state's own tax and price levels.
  • Position 204 of 430 in Alaska places correctional officers and jailers in the middle of the state's wage distribution. Because within-state and cross-state rankings measure different things, this figure and the national one above should be read together rather than as a single verdict.
  • Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for correctional officers and jailers on its $71,360 median: $59,032 retained after tax becomes $58,036 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $74,430 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.

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Pay band: Correctional Officers and Jailers

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$60,340
Half earn under$71,360
Top tenth earn over$94,930
This salary$71,360

Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.

The same pay, somewhere else

The state median for this job

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Alaska$59,032
Take-home in Texas$59,032
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$2,711

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.

What you would need there

The state median for this job

Moving to
$0now · $71,360$67,615
$67,615in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$71,360
You could take a cut of−$3,745
Prices in Texas97 vs 102

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • Treat $71,360 as a midpoint for Alaska, not a promise. The tenth percentile is $60,340 and the ninetieth is $94,930 — a wide band, and where you land in it depends on far more than the state.
  • That $59,032 take-home in Alaska comes from $71,360. It is the no-frills case: single filer, standard deduction, nothing set aside before tax. Real circumstances almost always reduce the tax. City and school-district taxes are not counted at all. Locally the work ranks 204 of 430.
  • Two cautions on $58,036, the adjusted value of that $71,360 median. It levels out prices with a single number for all of Alaska. No actual address matches that. The wage figures and price figures are also from different years. Each is published on its own timetable. This work sits at 204 of 430 locally.
  • The Alaska median of $71,360 describes the midpoint of a distribution spanning $60,340 to $94,930. Because that spread is typically larger than the interstate spread, a state median is a weak predictor for any individual worker in this occupation.
  • Retained pay of $59,032, from $71,360, assumes a single Alaska filer with the standard deduction and no elective deferrals. Pre-tax retirement or HSA contributions, dependants and itemized deductions all reduce it further; local income taxes, excluded here, would increase it in the states that levy them. This occupation ranks 204 of 430 locally, and the state ranks 10 of 49 for it.
  • This $58,036 adjusted figure, worked from $71,360, rests on a state-level price parity averaging over within-state dispersion larger than much of the between-state dispersion. Wage and price vintages differ by publication schedule. The result is directionally sound and not address-specific, for work at 204 of 430 in the state. The occupation ranks 204 of 430 locally.

Questions people ask

Is this the average pay for the job?

It is the midpoint, not the average. The average here is $74,430, dragged up by high earners; the middle figure describes a typical worker better.

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $60,340 at the bottom tenth to $94,930 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?

A larger wage in a dearer place is not automatically more. Adjusted for local prices, this pay behaves like $58,036 of national purchasing power.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

No. $59,032 survives, because Alaska levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.

Why is this job missing from some states?

Because the survey suppresses a figure when too few employers report it. This occupation has published pay in 49 states — the rest are withheld to protect confidentiality, which is not the same as nobody doing the work there.

How does the published median differ from the mean for this occupation?

The median is the midpoint of the distribution; the mean for this occupation in Alaska is $74,430. Wage distributions are right-skewed, so the mean exceeds the median wherever a minority earn substantially more. BLS publishes both because substituting one for the other misstates a typical worker's pay.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($60,340 to $94,930) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alaska rather than a national figure.

How does the state price level affect real compensation?

Alaska's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $58,036 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.

Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?

Alaska levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $59,032 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.

Why does this occupation lack published estimates in every state?

BLS suppresses estimates failing disclosure or reliability criteria. This occupation has published state-level estimates in 49 of the fifty-one jurisdictions. Suppression reflects sample size and confidentiality rules, and cannot be read as an absence of employment.